If you're a huge fan of Tabasco sauce like I am, you'll definitely want to read through this cool new book, Tabasco: An Illustrated History ($38).

This is the first and only book about the McIlhenny family and company that examines the origins and evolution into a global culinary icon. Not only does it trace the history of the wildly adventurous lives of it's descendants, the discovery of Avery Island, Louisiana that became home to the families, factory and community that make Tabasco sauce, it also includes stranger-than-fiction stories, detailed sidebars, historical recipes, archival curiosities and hundreds of fascinating photographs, both in color and black-and-white. Best of all, it provides Edmund McIlhenny's original handwritten recipe for Tabasco sauce (circa 1868)!

It provides an unprecedented, behind-the-scenes look into a true American legend and will probably be the first book about a condiment to ever grace the surface of your coffee table! (via Michael Kiely)